Love Letter to New York
Posted by Moose on November 2nd, 2009. Filed under: Adventures, Love.I moved from California to New York when I was 18. I visited Manhattan for the first time on winter break during my senior year of high school. Separated from the group by a pair of rogue gloves and my need to retrieve them, I walked the streets of an unfamiliar city and thought, “Oh yeah. I could TOTALLY be lost here on a regular basis.” Once home again, I dashed off my college application in about two hours and my mom raced to the post office to FedEx it in time to make the next day’s deadline. As promised, I spent the next four years wondering how I’d managed to accidentally ride the subway over the Brooklyn Bridge.
There are a lot of difficult things about attending a school full of smart, driven women in a large city when you’re young and tender and don’t yet understand things like ATMs. But as with most things, the good far outweighed the bad, especially when the good included scoring free tickets to the opera and enormous whipped cream-laden desserts at Serendipity.
Therefore. I present some of my favorite New York moments, most involving food in some capacity:
Setting fire to the napkin in the bread basket by carelessly putting it too close to the candle. My roommate’s eyes widened at the sight of the flames and she unceremoniously dumped the basket on the floor and stomped out the miniature bread-based inferno.
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Sitting in the sculpture garden of the MOMA and pretending to do homework, but really watching the last three bluebirds left on the island of Manhattan chase water from the fountain.
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Climbing to the top of the bell tower of Riverside church and standing on the rickety observation deck overlooking the city while the huge iron bell shook the entire structure.
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Walking the main thoroughfare at Christmas time when all the trees were covered in white lights from trunk to stem. The same trees dropped blossoms everywhere in the spring.
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Snatching fried zucchini out of a pan full of hot oil in the dorm kitchen while a blizzard raged outside.
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Going to see Goodwill Hunting during my sophomore year and yelling “THAT GUY’S IN MY ASTRONOMY CLASS!” as Casey Affleck’s name flashed across the screen.
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Eating grease-laden french fries at Tom’s at one in the morning.
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Watching the March of the Ghouls in St. John’s Cathedral on Halloween. Men in spider suits rappelled down Gothic columns while masked creatures on stilts lumbered stiffly through the smoke.
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Feigning innocence when SOMEBODY’S 2 a.m. snack of Rice-a-Roni burned, causing the fire alarm to go off, the entire dorm to troop out into the cold, and the New York Fire Department to make a grumbling appearance.
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Standing in the snow on the steps of the main library at midnight the evening before finals start and shrieking my fool head off, along with everyone else on campus, as part of a grand and noble tradition for the benefit of Agitated University Students everywhere. And to the profound annoyance of everyone else.
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November 2nd, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Glad you are back and in the throes of memory. It’s a great place to go when things get sketchy.
When I was a freshman in college in New Orleans, we had a tradition too. Whenever a fire alarm was pulled, no matter what time of night, no matter what night, we pulled on our clothes and went to the bar. I am not sure whether they were the good old days, but they left an impression.
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:05 pm
I love my college memories. They seem so far away and carefree now. I wish I could go back.
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Me too…I mean, I enjoy going back in time. You think this might be a signe of senility?
It was fun reading those memories you have of New York.
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:10 pm
Ugh, typo….”signe” indeed!!!
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:17 pm
We went to college in the age just before the internet. Can you imagine how much college life in NY would have contributed to your Twitter feed?
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:34 pm
You’re FELICITY! Ha ha!!
I love New York, and I must say that this makes me feel a bit pang-y for the single carefree life. What I wouldn’t give to live there once, even just for a short period of time!
November 3rd, 2009 at 7:00 am
Love this.
November 3rd, 2009 at 7:53 am
Um, so I’m moving back. Not really, but maybe. If we never come home again, can you promise to put Buster on a plane for us? Want the apartment?
I FORGOT HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS CITY.
November 3rd, 2009 at 8:29 am
Oh, we are kindred klutzy spirits! My first night in the dorms my freshman year at the University of Minnesota, I accidentally burned microwave popcorn so badly, the entire dorm had to be evacuated and 7 fire trucks came! SUCH a mortification!
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:43 am
You seem to have a lot of fire-related adventures. Maybe you should start wearing a NASCAR driver suit.
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:59 am
One of my best friends lives in New York now, which means I have to go visit once a year. It’s a hard job but someone’s got to do it.
Do all colleges have a very loud tradition? Ours involved ringing a bell. But only at a very specific time in your schooling or you’d be cursed.
November 3rd, 2009 at 7:28 pm
I’ll be in NYC next week for work for five days. This post got me giddy about the trip.
November 5th, 2009 at 10:29 am
I went far, far away for school too, but went to Tempe, AZ. Which was good because I think if you had thrown in BIG CITY LIVING into the “I’m now on my own, thousands of miles away from home” equation, it wouldn’t have ended well.
I’ve only been to NYC once. And it was one of the worst trips of my life because I went with a bunch of lame ass people. I need to get back and REALLY experience the city!
November 6th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
I have been to New York 150 times at least (and would totally live there in a heartbeat) but just went to Serendipity last week FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER.
my god.
How did I not know about its deliciousness?!?!?
November 10th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Was Casey Affleck *really* in your astronomy class?
November 12th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Teej: HE TOTALLY WAS. As I recall, his hair was really curly and there were always at least two girls crowding his elbows.